The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling the temperature of a susceptor for mounting a sample thereon in an inspecting apparatus, for example.
A sample susceptor has so far been widely used as a table for mounting thereon a sample in a plasma processing unit or an inspecting apparatus. In an inspecting apparatus such as a probing apparatus in the semiconductor manufacturing field, for example, a large number of IC chips formed on a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter to be referred to as a wafer) are inspected for their electrical characteristics at the stage of a semiconductor wafer. By selectively classifying the IC chips into passes and failures, their productivity at the final stage is being improved.
The IC chips manufactured into commercial products as a semiconductor apparatus are used under various weather conditions. Therefore, even at the inspection stage, electrical inspections of the wafers are carried, out under various temperature conditions by taking into account these weather conditions. In order to set these temperature conditions, a temperature control unit is provided in the sample susceptor.
The temperature control apparatus for the conventional sample susceptor circulates the cooling medium by using the refrigerator, the pump and the tank in order to cool the susceptor. Accordingly, the conventional temperature control apparatus has a problem in that the cooling facilities become a large scale. There is a risk that the cooling liquid will leak out from the connection of the piping of the temperature control apparatus. Therefore, the conventional temperature control apparatus has a problem of providing measures for avoiding a leakage of the cooling liquid. Further, in order to keep constant the cooling capacity of the cooling liquid, quality management of the cooling liquid and management of using quantity of the cooling liquid are necessary. Moreover, if the quality of the cooling liquid is deteriorated during the period, this must be disposed of as a waste material. Thus, the conventional apparatus has the problem of involving extreme troublesome maintenance work for the cooling facilities.